We first started officially homeschooling at the beginning of 1985
when our oldest child was almost six.
Homeschooling was very different then – in fact we homeschooled for
quite a while without meeting or knowing a single family who was
homeschooling, and our own families thought we were ‘going through a
phase’.
Homeschooling curriculum was not available to me at that time, so I
made up my own curriculum and scoured the bookshops for books to fit
what I wanted to do. As I had been a school teacher, it wasn’t too
hard. And the best thing was that I had been mentored by an
old-fashioned-style senior teacher and learned so much from her
about the basics of what I think of as *real teaching* and *real
learning*.
I soon developed my own style which improved as I became more
experienced as a parent and a homeschooler. I got some things right
and I made mistakes. My philosophy stayed the same, while my method
of applying that philosophy became more refined and streamlined.
Gradually, I began to get a more long term perspective on parenting,
home-teaching and the developing homeschool market. And I saw that
there were ‘fashions’. For example, a certain mathematics program or
writing program or history or science program would become
fashionable. And people would start going for the fashionable
program rather than what they children needed. It’s never a good
idea to get distracted with beautiful tools instead of focusing on
what your child needs at the moment.
Over the years, homeschooling become more popular and widely
accepted. I wasn’t surprised because homeschooling is a wonderful
lifestyle and a great way to spend time with your children. The
Internet made knowledge and information more accessible, so that was
a help too.
But soon, I saw that homeschoolers were feeling stressed and
unhappy. They had so much information but it seemed to be confusing
rather than helping them. I saw that they were spending a lot of
money on equipment, curriculum and classes that were good for some
people, but not necessarily good for them.
I could see how hard it was for people to know what was the best for
their family and what was better to leave for others. Homeschooling
had become and expensive and worrying lifestyle for many families.
Then I noticed that the support of an experienced homeschooling
friend made all the difference to a homeschooler. And that’s where
this course is so useful. It takes you logically, calmly, and simply
through basic steps to help you plan your own homeschooling style
and method. It gives you tools to live the life you want with your
children.